Mechanisms of Trophic Partitioning Within Two Fish Communities
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Mechanisms of trophic partitioning within two fish communities associated with a tropical oceanic island Clément Trystram, David Roos, David Guyomard, Sébastien Jaquemet To cite this version: Clément Trystram, David Roos, David Guyomard, Sébastien Jaquemet. Mechanisms of trophic parti- tioning within two fish communities associated with a tropical oceanic island. Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science, Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association, 2015, 14 (1-2), pp.93- 111. hal-01449334 HAL Id: hal-01449334 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01449334 Submitted on 14 Feb 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. 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Amante and Eakins / National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA (2009) WIO Journal of Marine Science 14 (1/2) 2015 93-111 Original Article 93 Mechanisms of trophic partitioning within two fish communities associated with a tropical oceanic island Clément Trystram1*, David Roos2, David Guyomard3, Sébastien Jaquemet1 3 1 UMR 9220 Entropie (Université 2 Ifremer Délégation Océan Comité Régional des Pêches *corresponding author: de La Réunion-IRD-CNRS), Indien, Rue Jean Bertho - Maritimes et des Elevages Marins, [email protected] Avenue René Cassin CS 92003, BP 60 - 97822 Le Port Cedex, 47 rue Evariste de Parny, 97744 Saint-Denis Cedex 9, Ile de La Réunion, France 97827 Le Port Cedex, Ile de La Réunion, France. Ile de La Réunion, France Abstract Understanding drivers of trophic partitioning at the community level is an essential prerequisite to the establish- ment of ecosystem-based management of fisheries. In this study, we identify drivers of trophic partitioning within a community of epipelagic fish and a community of deep-water fishes off Reunion Island. Effects of intrinsic (species identity, etc.) and environmental variables (fishing zone, month) on stomach content composition and stable isotope ratios were tested using regression trees and linear models respectively. Our results demonstrated firstly an inde- pendence of both communities, with very few common prey although they occurred in similar localities, and sec- ondly, very different patterns of resources partitioning among each community. The community of epipelagic fish segregated into three trophic guilds composed of species foraging on a limited range of prey. This observation is not consistent with the general view that these high trophic level species are opportunistic and generalist. The habitat seems to be the main driver of deep-water fishes feeding partitioning, which is in accordance with the sound-scatter- ing layer interception hypothesis. Deep-water fishes would distribute in the water column at different depths and all species would feed on the same resources at each depth. The results of this study suggest that fisheries management should be very different for epipelagic (more species-centred) and deep-water fish (more habitat-centred). Keywords Trophic partitioning, Deep-sea, Epipelagic, Predator, Stable isotopes, Stomach contents Introduction acknowledged that the implementation of mod- In the context of increasing demand for marine-de- el-based ecosystem fisheries management is neces- rived food (Msangi et al., 2013), fisheries have extended sary (Garcia et al., 2003; Pikitch et al., 2004; Cury et al., both down the marine food web (decrease in the 2008). Such models are useful to evaluate and predict mean trophic level – TL – of catches of 0.1 TL.dec- the impacts of resource overexploitation and climate ade-1; Pauly et al., 1998) and into the depths (increase in change on ecosystems and to propose measures to the mean depth of fishing of 62.5 m.decade-1; Watson make fisheries more sustainable. and Morato, 2013). This rapid development of fish- eries led to drastic declines of numerous fish stocks, Prior to the development of such models, informa- with 58% of known stocks being overfished or already tion on biological interactions, energy transfer, con- collapsed (Froese et al., 2012). Moreover, fisheries sumption and production at the different trophic can extend their effects beyond targeted species by levels is required (Pauly et al., 2002; Christensen and affecting habitats or non-target species, and fish com- Walters, 2004), but such information is usually lack- munities, thereby changing the structure and func- ing. In particular, the influence of biotic and abiotic tion of ecosystems ( Jackson et al., 2001; Hsieh et al., parameters on trophic habits still requires clarifica- 2006; Myers et al., 2007). In order to understand the tion. Predator species, ontogeny and distance to shore impacts of fisheries on ecosystems, it is nowadays have been demonstrated to have significant influence 94 WIO Journal of Marine Science 14 (1/2) 2015 93-111 | C. Trystram et al. Figures Figure 1. Figure 1. Map of Reunion Island representing deep-water fish fishing zones in bold letters, limited by the 600 m isobath, and anchored fishing aggregating devices in black triangles. White circles represent harbours with size proportional to the number of fishermen, from 2 (smallest circles) to 42 (largest circles). on predator diet and community structure (Haight, exploited by the local artisanal fisheries was reported 1993; Lowe et al., 1996; Jaquemet et al., 2011, Allain (Fleury et al., 2012; Guyomard et al., 2012; Le Manach et al., 2012). Nevertheless, some regional or tempo- et al., 2015). Although they are economically impor- ral diet variations suggest various degrees of dietary tant for the artisanal fishing sector, knowledge of the specialisation according to parameters that remain ecology of these fish species remains very limited. undetermined for many species, including both oce- Jaquemet et al. (2011) showed that yellowfin (Thunnus anic (eg Coryphaena hippurus and Thunnus albacares; albacares) and skipjack (Katsuwanus pelamis) tuna feed Buckley and Miller, 1994; Taquet, 2004; Graham upon diverse assemblages of coastal fish and crusta- et al., 2007; Tripp-Valdez et al., 2010) and deep-water cean larvae and juveniles off